


Phoenix Recovered

by Sileas333



Series: Wreck [1]
Category: Knight Rider (1982), Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Abandonment, Crossover, First Person, Gen, Rescue, author insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-12 16:02:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18013958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sileas333/pseuds/Sileas333
Summary: The continuing saga....





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So! If you're here because "Ooooh, Knight Rider!", then go back and read the first work. This is a continuation of the first bit in the series. I divided it up like this because I wanted the rescue subject to be a surprise, so put that part in a separate work in this series and ....intentionally left out the tag so it would be a surprise. So go back 'n read the first chunk or this won't make sense because it's starting in the middle of a scene. The notes on the first part have some important bits, too.

The others traded quiet looks for a moment, then two of them moved to lift one end of the heavy tarp and start rolling it up. I used the time to get my stupid crying under control, then picked up the flashlight again.

"Power cables," one of them said from the other side, shining a small flashlight at the wall. "Tan? Can you...?" The other engineer finished moving the tarp, then took a moment to maneuver a small tug he had remote-controlled on the way in, parking it off to the side. Picking up the case they had brought, he came around to the other side. Both of the junior engineers crouched down by the outlets and opened up the gray case they had brought with power cells and adaptors.

"A hundred and fifty volts. Easy," Geordi said, looking at the readout on a tricorder. "The cells look to be in decent condition, but let’s get the adapters set up before we pull any plugs." He shut the tricorder and joined the other two engineers on the other side.

"Have you been able to talk to him?" Data asked me while the others worked.

"Well...I can talk, sure–but have I gotten a response? No. Nothing," I said, still trying to force away the end of the crying. "I know–we know, we’ve checked power, he’s still ‘in there’, but....we know there’s still power there, and the only info we have is from when they replaced the power packs a few years ago and he said to just let him run out and die."

Data nodded, then turned and watched the other three for a moment, on the other side. Eiger, the red-head, stood up and went to the front of KITT, kneeling down with some piece of tech in her hands. She worked with it a moment, then reached underneath KITT.

"I believe it would be appropriate to attempt to get a response from him," Data said, looking apologetic. "Have you told him what we are attempting to do?"

I sighed. "Yeah....well–hang on," I said, walking over closer. It really shouldn’t matter where I was, because he should be able to hear no matter where I stood, but...well, the iconic hood ornament....I went to the front and crouched down, right next to Eiger. "Alright, KITT," I said firmly, putting my hands on the edge of the dusty hood. "You can see there are five people here, but maybe you can only sense four of us. The fifth is an android," I said, glancing up at Data. "His name is Data, and he’s a very high-ranking officer on board–a ship." I stumbled over the words, not wanting to dump too much on him at once. "If you want to die, fine. We’ll do that. But you deserve something better than to just—have the frikken plug pulled by some anonymous person who walks away while you slowly fizzle into _nothing,_ " I said, giving the front edge a little shove. "You deserve a shit-ton better than to be forgotten in a stupid warehouse. Please," I begged, trying not to start crying again, "Please, give me a peep, give me a signal that you can hear me. Flash a signal light or something–please. We’re trying to help you!"

I saw Eiger glance at me, then shift her position to reach underneath his front end. I stared at the dark scanner, barely able to make out the shape through the thick dust, seeing nothing. I knew Data was watching me and I tried not to look up at him–I didn’t want him to see...well, the beginning edge of ‘oh dear, are we sure he’s still in there?’ in my expression. Next to me, Eiger withdrew her hand from underneath the front end and got to her feet, using the front bumper to keep her balance. She left four finger marks in the dust and dirt and I stared morbidly at the darker color that had been uncovered. I wished it was worth—

"The yellow light on the corner just flashed," Data said.

I inhaled air so fast I almost choked. "Huh!?" My body couldn’t decide if I should stand up or just crawl around the corner a couple of feet, so it decided to fall over. I pushed myself up and crawled. "Here? This one?"

"Yes. It flashed once."

"Oh, God, thank you!" I whined, falling against the fender. "Thank you, KITT!" I practically kissed the light. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"What’s up?" Geordi called softly from the other side, standing up.

"He is still functioning and acknowledges our presence," Data said.

"He’s still in there!"

"I thought you said you’d verified that," Geordi said, frowning.

"Well—" I straightened a little bit and as I did, I saw he and Data trade a Look. Yikes.... "We verified that there is still power usage going on. It’s been uninterrupted, and there is activity at a low level still going on in his CPU. But I’ve been in here three or four times in the past week or so and...." I shook my head, frustrated. "Got nothing. This is the first time..." I looked down at the signal light, a dull yellow rectangle on the front right side, already starting to see it as a ‘mouth’ of sorts.

Out of my peripheral vision I saw another Look between Geordi and Data. I clasped my hands behind my head, suddenly feeling....like maybe this wasn’t the best—No. Leaving him here like this...what we were going to do was Good.

"I believe we should ask his permission before we attempt to move him," Data said, moving closer to the dusty gray form. "The sudden communication and environment change may be difficult for him to process."

"Before we do that...." Everybody, including me, turned to Geordi on hearing his tone of voice. "...Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about this?" He had his tricorder open and was looking at me like he’d found a deal killer.

"What?" I asked bluntly, getting scared.

Geordi looked at me disapprovingly, back to the tricorder, shook his head, then passed the tricorder across to Data, who looked at it....and then turned to me, looking a little stunned. Geordi clasped his hands together and simply waited, expectant, staring me down.

"What? I can’t read minds! You’re going to have to say it out loud. What?"

For answer, all he did was reach down and tap a finger on the hood.

"Look, you’re an adult. Say it." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was kicking myself. I was basically verbally flipping off the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. Not a death wish, but...not a good plan, all the same.

He and Data traded another look, and finally Geordi said quietly, "This body contains molecules that are two short steps away from tritanium."

"What?" I gasped. My hands went to my mouth and the jaw dropped. I stared at KITT. "Holy shit..."

"There’s no way this material is native. Tritanium is impossible to fabricate even in the 24th century–it’s an ore that isn’t even found in this solar system." The other two engineering types were staring at Geordi, then at KITT. Data passed the tricorder back to Geordi, then stepped closer and ran a hand along the roof.

"So basically....he’s practically a starship hull!" I stood up, a little sore from crouching down for so long.

"Mhmm." Geordi gave a sharply affirmative hum and a nod, still looking a little expectant. "Anything to say?"

"Like, wow?" I said, a little sarcastic, but still goggling at KITT.

"Where is this material from? Who got it?" he asked insistently.

"Knight Industries," I shot back, waving a hand. "It’s their formula. It’s–it was a–" I stared at the ceiling of the warehouse, wandering off a bit, trying to remember. "Something like....plas–no...oh—Trihelical Plasteel 1000 MBS," I recited carefully. "MBS is molecular bonded shell. There were three ingredients," I said, getting more emphatic as Geordi didn’t seem to be very impressed. "They kept it secret–it never got out on the market. It was a heavily guarded thing. No, it’s not from the future. Knight Industries had some hot people, and Wilton Knight was–like, a modern day da Vinci. He was a genius in a couple of areas. I swear on Counselor Troi," I said, holding up a hand. "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Geordi sighed, glancing from me to Data to KITT, and shifted his weight, a subtle signal that he didn’t believe me but was putting that argument on hold for now. "You gave no indication that this was not native, but it’s hard for us to believe that this is the first time the 24th century has been here."

I did an exaggerated hand shrug. "I will cheerfully submit myself to Counselor Troi. She can crawl all over inside my mind, but it’s the truth," I insisted as he looked at the tricorder one more time, shook his head, and closed it.

"Alright," he said with a sigh, a hand on his hip, "What’s our order of business here? Start moving?"

"I would first like to obtain permission from KITT to do this," Data said calmly. "We would verify that he understands what we are attempting, in its entirety," he said almost apologetically, glancing to me, implying not just the power transfer but also the time and dimension shift. "If he is willing, then we will disconnect from native power and verify successful relay from the sarium krellide packs. I will orient him 90 degrees and the tug will be connected. In the interest of speed, I will return the altered security system to its original configuration at both our entry point and exit point while the three of you get KITT into the shuttle."

"That’s a plan. Alright," Geordi said, dusting off his hands a little. "We do tech, you do communication?"

"I’m sure not doing tech," I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Data nod.

Geordi and the other two techs, Eiger and Tan, started their work on the other side, and I fixated on the signal light, crouching down again. There were cobwebs stretching from the tires to the ground, like chock blocks of neglect, that I hadn’t noticed before, and it made me angry again. I put my hands on the edge of the hood for balance, just a few fingertips because yeah, he very much needed a bath. "Ok, KITT... I don’t know how much of that you heard or understood, but what we’d like to do is bust you the fuck out of this joint," I said, choking back the F word a little. "What we can do is get you far away from here and let you live again, if you want, but if you want to die...." I couldn’t come up with the words for what I thought about that, and finally said, "...we can see about that, but either way, you shouldn’t be sitting here rotting. So, first question–is it ok with you if we break you out of here? Flash this signal light once for yes, twice for no," I said, tapping the yellow light.

Waited.

"I hope he’s thinking," I said to Data after at least a minute, looking up at him.

"There is a possibility of decreased–"

I sucked in my breath, seeing a flash—"Noooo!" I moaned as a second flash came. I leaned my forehead against the edge of the hood, feeling crushed.

"Geordi–"

"Wait–hang on a sec," I said. "I wanna..." I stared at the light, trying to formulate a yes-no question. "Are you scared to leave?" After only a few seconds, there were two flashes. "Do you feel like there’s nothing you’d want to do out in the world?" That was a loaded question. If he said yes, I was going to go to town on him. After another few moments, there was a flash and I held my breath, waiting....one...two....three....four....

"Right," I said firmly, sitting myself down cross-legged. "Howzabout this. We want to boost you out of here–wait. Delete that. We want to get you out of here, and just a very short trip from here, like, measured in meters, there’s a..." I sighed. "Ok, I know you don’t like flying, but this is completely different. It’s not a jet. You’ve never flown like this before, and truthfully, as soon as you get in that shuttle, you will be safer than you’ve ever been before in your life. We’re talking technology that you literally cannot imagine, in terms of safety. We’d leave here, and I mean the Big Leave—we’d be going out of orbit range of Earth. Not as far away as the moon, but we’d be off this _planet_. Then we’re going forward in time. About, oh....heck," I said, looking up at Data.

"Three hundred and fifty-five years," he supplied smoothly.

"That far into the future, and another dimension, but that won’t affect you anything like the time shift will. The shuttle is going to go to a giant honkin’ ship in the main shuttle bay, and we can clean you and fix anything and everything that might need it, and we can talk about what you want. You deserve to be with people who appreciate you. You _don’t_ deserve to be imprisoned and forgotten. Ok? You’d still be in range of this planet, and I’m thinking you would go to Earth, but it’s Earth in the future and it’s better than you can imagine. There’s so much stuff to do and you’ll have so many choices, so many different things you can do with your life..." I trailed off, shaking my head, knowing I was deep into babbling territory. "It’s as different from your current situation as you can possibly get. You have lost interest in life because this life has lost interest in you. We can take you to a place that will...well, freakin’ boggle you. We can take it as slow as you want, but I mean it, you cannot imagine how big this is. You will have complete control over your life and a blithering number of amazing things you can do, and boy howdy, life is gonna immediately take a very deep interest in you, more than you can imagine. And even if you don’t want to...." I tipped forward again, with my forehead against the fender, realizing I was giving myself an early Ash Wednesday treatment but not caring. "Even if you don’t want any part of it, at least let us take you somewhere happy and clean and give you some dignity in death. Your current state, this situation you’re in, just sitting here in a prison going insane from boredom.... This. Ends. Now," I said, giving him another sharp nudge. "Please, will you let us get you out of this hell-hole and end this?"

Well, I wanted to convince him, obviously. I wanted to tell him about the hypergiant star full of goodness this was, but now that I was done and asked him the question...dang. Now was probably going to decide it for good. Really, I couldn’t imagine him wanting to stay in insanity, and maybe I would have even considered doing it against his wishes, but I knew Data and company probably wouldn’t let me. But the way things were right now....In my mind, there were two paths, two things that could happen. He could say yes, but the other choice wasn’t so much him saying no as me simply not accepting the answer and continuing to babble at him, trying to talk him into it. I would have to believe it was because he didn’t understand what I was saying or didn’t have the ability to imagine anything good anymore. We could go into a lot of philosophy on that, I’m sure, and all of it pointing back to the morality of leaving him here in this prison, or busting him out into life and, really, heaven, compared to the current state of affairs. Would it be morally acceptable to take him against his wishes in the knowledge that he just didn’t have the mental...or processor or computer or whatever...capacity to imagine good anymore?

Whelp, that all quickly became a moot point as I had to resort to ‘air screaming’ as The Signal Light blipped once and after holding my breath for as long as I could and not seeing a second one, I had to let it out somehow! Probably wouldn’t be a good idea to howl the way I wanted to, just in case somehow it set off an alarm, so yeah, whisper screaming and pumping my arms like I was pants-on-head insane. I’d save the maniac behavior for Deck 4. Or maybe I’d cut loose in the shuttle....

Or, y’know, start crying again...

Geordi and Data started talking over my head while I sat there on the floor, hugging myself, crying from sheer relief. I thought of hugging a tire but it was pretty filthy looking from years of no ambient air circulation, broom, or any attention whatsoever. Didn’t take long, though, before the road ahead started to come into my mind and that brought about some pretty savage ‘let’s get to it’-ishness. After wiping my face off again and snotting up some kleenex, I started to mentally join the conversation going on over my head.

"...packs was probably overkill, but we’re going to have to keep it low for now, because of all of the dust," Eiger was saying. "I think we’re just going to have to hope he knows."

"I would surmise an artificial intelligence of this nature from this era would be made aware of the hazards of accidental combustion," Data agreed. He was around on the other side, placing a small sarium cell in the shallow well by the windshield wipers.

"Alright, best guess on the wheels," Geordi said with a sigh, dusting his hands off. "If they’re not stable, we’re gonna need to get awfully creative." He still had a hint of sarcasm in his voice, not trusting the whole situation though he had been downright Geordi—er, enthusiastic, back on the ship.

After a moment, Data clearly reached a decision and crouched down by the front wheel on the other side. I knew what was going to happen a split second before I saw it–KITT’s front left side rose slightly, then settled back down gently. Frowning, Data straightened. "The wheels do not appear to turn freely. This could be due to a variety of factors, from long-term immobility to a conscious decision to remain in place," he said, looking at me as I stood up. "Communicating with KITT would both secondarily confirm the power transfer as well as determine his ability to be passively moved."

The Signal Light. I managed to not say "Oh, boy" out loud. Well, we’d gotten a response from him already, so he was definitely in there. But he was clearly as low as one could get. He’d been wishing for death for a number of years now. I suppose it was a minor miracle that he’d agreed to this. Man, if he had any idea of how good life was about to get for him now...

I crouched down by The Signal Light. "Alright, KITT. We’ve done a power transfer thingie—you should still have power incoming, but it’s just from a different source–right?" I glanced up to Geordi, who nodded and went back to his tricorder. "If you could give us a blip to verify that it’s good...and then we can talk about moving you."

"Just leave the cables?" Eiger asked softly, kicking them to the side.

"Yeah, we shouldn’t need them," Geordi answered. I didn’t look up, fixated on the signal light, and as time passed and there was no answer, I started to freeze up. Geordi must have seen my expression. "No response?"

I didn’t want to answer—just kept holding my breath, staring at the light, hoping and praying and begging. Nothing came....nothing came... and I could feel my mood plunge. Maybe he was mulling over the new power source, but really, that shouldn’t matter. They arranged it so it was exactly the same rate, the same energy or whatever going in. It couldn’t be that. The only thing I could think of was that he was so far down in mood, he didn’t even have the capacity to give an "oh, well" Eeyore equivalent. Really? Not even flicking a signal light—

_Thunk._

It came from somewhere deep inside, like something that was so substantial I couldn’t tell which end it came from. Then there was another one. _Thunk._ Then another. _Thunk._ No damn idea what it was, I froze up again, scared. Technically, KITT had been capable of some pretty spectacular mayhem back in the day, and I had no way of knowing if he just opened an ashtray or loaded a rocket. But seconds turned into long moments and no one died. I heard the quiet beeping whine of a tricorder over my head and looked up just as Data closed it, hooked it at his waist, and stepped to the rear. He placed his hands carefully on the back end and gave a small push.

I pulled in an "oohhh" of air, excited, as KITT rolled forward just a bit, enough to dislodge the tire webs. "Yes!" I guess this was at least as good an answer as a blip from a signal light—letting us move him! Closer and closer to busting him out of hell! I got to my feet, brushing dust off my rear, suddenly wanting to jump up and down but not wanting to look like even more of a dork to the others. Tan started working on positioning the tug, controlling it through a specialized pod small enough to hide in his hand.

"There was a partial cycle of a major component running the length of KITT, and this component appeared to have interactions with the wheels—"

"He shifted to neutral," I said with a smile.

Data slid to a verbal halt, stared at me uncertainly for a moment, and then finished, "....disengaged from the main shaft and is, well, neutral." He gave me that timid, awkward smile he does when someone takes the practical short-cut on him.

"And if that isn’t an endorsement for busting him out, I know not what is," I proclaimed excitedly. Geordi came around the front end of KITT and our eyes met for a moment. I could tell that he wasn’t exactly settled about this yet, but not even his silent disagreeing reservations could pull down my mood.

"Is there enough room? Do we need to maneuver?" Eiger was towards the back, looking skeptically at the relatively small space, bound on one side by a turn-in of the wall and the other end by some more massive shelving.

"I believe there is sufficient room," Data said, nodding. After another moment of looking at the space, he frowned and appeared to reconsider. "However...." He went to the rear again, this time crouching down, and reached underneath KITT. KITT rolled backwards a couple of feet, and then Data repositioned himself. Gently, precisely, the rear end rose off the ground a foot or so and moved to the right before settling back down again. Then he went to the front end and repeated the maneuver, creating at least four or five more feet of turning room.

"With that, we could probably pull him around using the tug," Geordi said thoughtfully, studying the orientation. It was the first thing he’d said without sarcasm for the past ten minutes and I tried to not call him on it, avoiding eye contact. Tan maneuvered the tug into position and there were some faint clicks–I guess it was hitching into whatever Eiger had put there earlier. After a moment KITT’s front end came up just slightly, not quite enough to lose contact with the ground. Just as I realized hey, tires normally turn and it would make this a lot easier, KITT’s front end came around courtesy of the tug with a low, dull, rubbing sound, probably dirty, currently tractionless rear tires against smooth concrete, and he was suddenly facing me. I got another look at him and did my damnedest to not start crying again. It was like he was presenting me with the obvious neglect, showing his now uniformly dull, dead, brownish gray surface, utterly lifeless. Though I could see the inset of the tracker, I think even if it did come on, I couldn’t see the light through all the dirt and cobwebs. My gosh...this is what they left him to? Really? Well. We are going to get him right the flibbety fuck out of here since those who claim to own him really don’t give one themselves.

Eiger was passing the gray equipment case to Data. "I will first ensure the path to the large door on the northwest wall is clear, and then I will circumvent native security and open it," he was saying, watching as Tan started to edge KITT along the wide courseway we had taken on our way to him. "After that, I will return our entry point to its original configuration and then close our exit path from the exterior."

"Alright, here we go," Geordi said, still sounding doubtful. He must have sensed what I was thinking and said, "When we get back to the ship, I fully intend to research this shell. I mean it–there’s no way this is native."

"Give it your best shot, but I’m telling the truth."

Man, I shouldn’t have been so flippant to him, but all he did was shake his head and start following slowly along with the parade we were making through the warehouse. Data took off at a fast clip, eventually breaking into a lope as he disappeared around a corner, heading to the door we came in through. I vowed to keep my mouth shut to avoid aggravating one of the people who was going to be key in rehabbing our patient. Really, Geordi had been interested and excited about exploring this and helping to save a life back when we talked about it on the Big E, but now....I guess he’s pretty sensitive to the impression that he’s being hoodwinked. He really wasn’t—but, hell, you know that. I didn’t want to add any sourness to the situation, though. This was supposed to be pure happiness.

It took a couple of trips back and forth for Data, including some trips around the exterior of the building to properly spring and shut doors, making sure everything got turned back as close as possible to the original configuration, but after about 20 minutes we were on approach to the shuttle. It was squidged up as close as reasonably possible to the building, shielded by a tree from another light on a pole. It was almost awkwardly quiet through all that as KITT got pulled up the ramp into the shuttle–I suppose not too unlike the Rook or whatever they called the trailer back when people gave a damn. I clamped down on the urge to babble to people about KITT to fill the silence. Ok, I suppose I shouldn’t expect them to be skipping and chattering, but I just kind of felt like the lack of any talk signaled indifference. I guess not much I can do about that right now–I’d just have to endure it until we got back to the ship and started...

Right. Just occurred to me then, I knew what I was going to work on, on our way back. What order to do things in. Not that I’m a KITT expert, but communication would come first...or maybe a bath and some kinda shine as a way to let him know we’re serious about this and then try talking...

"We are secure," Geordi said from up front. "All crew accounted for."

"Initiating engine power-up sequence." He and Data were tapping panels up front while Eiger and Tan and I sat in the seats behind them. I turned my chair to look back at KITT. The shuttle sure had seemed roomy before and I had quietly wondered if the one we picked for this was a bit of overkill, but now, looking at this giant ball of dirty dust taking up almost all of the reasonably available room, I guess I couldn’t argue. Seeing him sit there in this snazzy, over-modern environment, silent and dirty and suicidal, I just tried to fixate on imagining him blindingly shiny and lit up and talking excitedly about being in a six hundred-meter-long thing being held by a giant crab of a space station at a La Grange point in the Sol system and how he was so very not worried about it, not one tiny bit....

Boy, blink and you miss it. We were a few hundred miles up before I realized my act was coming up. Just as this went through my head, I heard Data say my name and I pulled around.

"In approximately three minutes we will reach the transfer coordinates," he informed me, and I nodded hurriedly.

"Yup, got it." I pulled out—no, it’s not an iPad, though it looks like one—my board and started hitching me up a communication. My hands were starting to shake again with excitement but after two tries, I managed to get Ja Sen.

"Juliet Zulu, this is cartwheeling pencil. Target acquired," I said, trying not to giggle.

Ja Sen’s jaw dropped slightly, his equivalent of a smile. "We’ve got you. The tunnel is already opening–they should be seeing it very soon now. It’s the exact same procedure as last time." I turned the screen so that the two up front could hear and see the instructions.

"Understood," Data answered with a short nod before turning back.

"Alright, goin’ quiet," I said to Ja Sen, turning the screen back to me. This kind of communication could mess up the transfer to another dimension so Ja Sen and I finished and I shut the line down.

Oh–what’s it like, going through dimensions? It’s not very unlike waking up from conscious sedation after a medical procedure. You just suddenly blink back to consciousness, though you don’t even remember blinking out in the first place, and in reality, only a few moments have passed. Faint feeling of vertigo and then ‘ur dun’, as the computer guys say. Though Data had told me after the first trip through, he had only been "out" for about a tenth of a second. I wondered what KITT’s experience of it was.

I looked back at him. Nothing had changed. He was still silent and dirty and suicidal. I turned back and tried to angle a look through the front screens, hoping to see us on approach, but could only see darkness. Going to have to just patiently wait this one out. Too late I remembered that I had wanted to start putting together a list, an order in which to do things, but we were probably too close now for me to bugger about it. We’d be back to the Big E soon.

Pretty soon I started hearing landing language from Data and Geordi, and this time when I looked up front, I could see part of the weird view of coming at the Enterprise from the back. I managed to identify the port nacelle and tracked it as it got closer...closer....

....still getting closer....

....and then it started to fill the view on that side....and we started to go past it.....

......going along the nacelle.....

.....still there.....blue glowy thing in the middle.....still there....

....still going along.....

You forget how big these things are until you get hit in the face with it. It took what I felt was an obscenely long time for the nacelle to go past. This ship is big, people. We’re used to seeing models. In reality, it’s big. I think it could take up half the TV show just watching one nacelle go by. Ok, we were going a beensy fraction of impulse and that probably had something to do with it but...still.

....oh look, we’ve finally reached that....now sorta brownish red part....

Ok, get over it. Yeah, took a long time. Dumb thing is, we were probably screaming along at illegal highway speeds, at least illegal outside of Germany. Finally I saw the edge of the "garage door" start to curve into view, and decided my neck was sore and sat back. Just a minute or so later, I felt the absolute faintest feeling of being set down, or at least I think I did, and then heard the subliminal hum all around me start to dive in pitch. With that, I started to have the first actual doubts about this. I was going to be asking for some very important people’s time and though KITT had agreed, there really wasn’t any solid guarantee that he could be mentally rehabbed, or even a guarantee that he was, pardon the phrase, fully functional. It was possible there could be some major malfunctions in his computer brain. I’m pretty sure that in worst case scenario he could be controlled, and the potential benefits outweighed the risks, but we had no way of knowing for certain what we had here. Either we just rescued a hero or recovered a psychopath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bath time!

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals when it was checked by a straight-on spray, blasting muddy water up the walls (for it is in Mudville that our scene lies), pouring along the gutters, and fiercely agitating those who got too near and had to go change clothes....

No matter how much water we sprayed, it seemed like KITT was now made of mud. I’m thinking there was at least a quarter inch of neglect-born dirty dust all over on him, and I’m thinking that tarp had been a very late addition to his scene. I don’t recall seeing Tan Harris or Beth Eiger getting coated when they pulled the tarp off. This was insane.

"So I guess this is free mud for the holodecks?" I had to raise my voice over the sound of three sprayers as they went at it, coordinating so that they didn’t accidentally blast each other with muddy water. It was Data; Tan Harris, one of the two engineers who had come down with us; and, happily, Miles O’Brien, who it turns had a closet interest in relatively old Earth mechanics like cars. Geordi had disappeared not long after we had pulled KITT into this service alcove, and I guess I wasn’t very sad to see him go.

"What, for matter recycling? Stock?" Tan asked as he delivered a dialed-down run of water into the windshield well.

Miles smiled and shook his head as he came past me, going for the other side. "This will likely be disposed of. It’s from a foreign source, and graded replicator stock only comes from where Starfleet says it comes from." I watched the...let’s call it dirt with a small side order of liquid....come off KITT in globs, plopping onto the deck and eventually finding its way to some grates that ringed the area. I expected to see something resembling a shine, or at least smoothness, when they finally got one area clean, but the only thing underneath all of that was black. Nothin’ special. Just your basic blackish kind of black. Well, some shine from the water, but...blackety black. Until some mud from another area slid onto the scene and then he went dirty again. It was kind of impressive that there were very few dots of mud on their uniforms by the time most of it was done. I can’t really say completely done because even when he looked clean, someone would find a crack and more mud would come spurting out from who knows where, like when you’re cleaning that ickiness out of the cracks in your shower.

"We should..." Miles had hitched his sprayer up on the wall and was contemplating the driver’s door. He saw me watching him and did a double-take. "I mean, depending on how long it’s been— _he’s_ been closed up, there’s a good bet that the air in the interior isn’t very good."

"Yeah," I said, realizing what he was saying. "I mean–but if he doesn’t want anyone inside, at least not yet, there’s not much we can—" I broke off into an enormous yawn. Data picked it up.

"I believe communication should be the next priority. I will do a thorough system study with a focus on his consciousness and ability to perceive his environment. I may be able to devise a way to communicate with him directly to identify and address the most pressing issues."

"Why the hell did I not think of that...ok, gonna meditate on the idea of KITT and Data having a meeting of minds—" aaaand another yawn. Alright, so I’d been up a while now.

"He’s going to need a way to be mobile, too," Miles continued, looking somewhere between confused and concerned. "These things used gasoline and there’s no way that’s happening here."

"That will be one of the issues addressed," Data said, glancing back at us as he tapped away at a panel along the perimeter of the alcove. "However, we should remember that KITT only agreed to be removed from the environment he was in. He has not yet made his wishes known regarding his continued existence. If he does wish to be terminated, we must respect his decision."

"Way to wreck the mood, Data," I mumbled, hunching down in my chair.

"Did he really want to die?" Miles asked, giving me a look of perfect confusion.

"Yeah," I said gloomily. "He reportedly said that a few years back, and his circumstances hadn’t changed between now and then. He’d just been locked up in the equivalent of solitary confinement like a piece of equipment, been there for at least a decade."

"Well, I guess I can’t blame him, if that’s all they thought of him," Miles said in disgust, rolling his eyes.

"Well, he ain’t goin’ back there," I announced tartly. "Time for KITT to get so much of a life, he doesn’t know what to do with himself."

"If he agrees to live," Data interjected. The only answer I could give that was a sigh.

Tan was bent over, cupping his hands around his eyes and peering through the passenger side window. "Can’t....quite...."

"If you’re looking for his brains, they’re right here," I said, getting up and spreading my hand over the center of the hood, near the windshield.

"No, I was...." He finally straightened and shrugged. "Just would be interesting to see the inside."

"Before that happens, getting the hood open would be helpful. That’s how you’ll get to all the good stuff. Or most of it, anyway."

Miles had gone thoughtful again and walked slowly over to the front, then crouched down. "How do you...." he started slowly.

"Ordinarily there’s a control—I mean, with normal cars, there’s a control inside that you hit, then you come over here and do a catch," I said, curling my fingers around the edge of the inset right above the scanner. "But with KITT....there may be an internal control—" another giant yawn "—but I do know he popped it whenever Bonnie needed to get in."

"Bonnie?"

"It was Dr. Bonnie Barstow, one of the main people who worked on him and maintained him when he was new."

It took me a moment to see that Data was now giving me a look of confusion. "Popped?" he repeated carefully.

"Well....slang for lifting the hood. Popping the hood."

Miles opened his mouth to say something, but everyone turned when a junior crewman, apparently from ops, appeared next to the alcove. He scanned the assembled and settled on me. "Are you - - - -?"

"Um...yeah?" I answered, uncertain, and looked over to Data, who seemed to have expected the arrival.

"I took the liberty of assigning you guest quarters," he answered matter-of-factly. "If my calculations are correct, you have now been awake for approximately 20 hours."

I smiled plaintively. "Alright...hint taken," I drawled. Truthfully, I was sleepy, yeah, but...didn’t want to leave. Data must have read my mind, then.

"If there are any significant changes, do you wish to be contacted?" he asked.

"Very much, yes," I said emphatically. "If he actually talks, if there’s any major weird development—yeah."

Miles gave me a sympathetic smile. "I’m not here for much longer, but if anything does happen, we’ll let you know."

"Even if you have to wake me up," I said, hoisting my little backpack and starting to weave my way out of the alcove. It was all starting to hit me, all of the emotional wired-ness and talking to people and crying...time to go to bed. I took one look back before I was out of view. KITT was now merely silent and suicidal, though he really wasn’t much shinier than your average black construction paper. I was choosing to ignore Data’s "if he agrees to live" sentiment and trying to imagine that famous red tracker lit up and zooming back and forth.

Out of the alcove, across a flight path or two to some stairs, to deck three, a turbolift, and then....I think it was deck six, but not sure. I was really feeling the need to just zonk out. The crewman was really quiet, awkward, not willing or able to start a conversation, I suppose kind of like me unless you hit one of my buttons. We got to the intended quarters and he tapped the door controls.

I have to admit, the place was kind of pretty. Most of the time the TV show just had kind of a bluish gray, or maybe a dusty pink if a female crew was in on it, but this place was a mix of shades of green and a little bit of my favorite color, yellow. I thought of asking if they knew that was my color, if there’s a way for the walls to morph their color somehow, but the thought just leaked out of my head along with all of the other information the quiet, polite crewman was dishing out about the quarters. Yup, replicator, yes, window controls, computer screen—

"Do I have computer access?" I blurted out in the middle of him pointing out the bathroom. He nodded.

"Guest quarters include computer access," he answered with a small smile, and went on with his evenly paced recitation. Finally he was done, and I just left my bag out in the living area and flopped onto the bed.

And then sat bolt upright. "- - - - - to Data." Maybe my subconscious knew this was coming.

" _Data here._ "

"Data, could you make sure that he’s never alone?"

_"Are you referring to KITT? Are you worried about security?"_

"No–it’s just....he was alone for years. Could you—is it possible to arrange it so that there’s always someone there, ready and willing to talk to him? And make sure that the lights are always on. Is that possible?"

There was a very human pause. _"That can be arranged,"_ he said, and I swear, maybe it was my imagination but I heard a smile in his voice, or at least something...very understanding, and very comforting for me to hear.

"Thank you," I said, heartfelt. "Thank you very much, Data. I love you for that." There was silence for a moment, and I could imagine I probably confused him. "Just...thank you for doing this. It is very, very much appreciated."

_"I imagine it is. While we must abide by his wishes, I do hope that he chooses to live."_

"So do I."


End file.
